Leaders wanted for sixth World Parks Congress

24 January 2013 | News story

The world’s most influential gathering of people involved in parks and protected area management – the IUCN World Parks Congress - is calling for inspiring leaders who will help position protected areas as solutions to some of today’s biggest global challenges and shape the agenda for protected areas and their management over the next decade and beyond.

The sixth IUCN World Parks Congress (WPC), due to be held in Sydney, Australia from 12 – 19 November 2014, is themed Parks, People, Planet: Inspiring Solutions. IUCN’s Global Protected Areas Programme and World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) and the host partners, Parks Australia and the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service, have created a number of programmes of work, or “work streams” for the Congress, which will be vital to position parks and protected areas firmly within the broader goals of economic and community well-being. Leaders for these “streams” will be instrumental in organizing a successful Congress and setting the agenda for future conservation priorities and action.

The 2014 IUCN World Parks Congress seeks to move beyond the conservation and environment communities by identifying and establishing relationships with businesses, governments and other sectors to generate real solutions, commitment and action. Stream leaders will be crucial in bringing these collaborations to life.

Held only once every decade, this IUCN World Parks Congress will take on special significance. Taking place in advance of the mid-point in the ten-year agenda for reaching the ‘Aichi Biodiversity Targets’, set out by the Convention on Biological Diversity in 2010, WPC 2014 will provide an opportunity for conservation leaders to take stock of progress achieved so far and suggest new, bold approaches for moving forward. WPC 2014 is expected to attract more than 3,000 participants.

Join us today as we build a protected areas network that thrives as a rousing call to nature’s resilience and vitality in providing a protected planet for all.

Stream leadership is open to individuals, IUCN member organizations, IUCN commissions and any other organization that demonstrates the capacity to lead a programme of work globally and achieve IUCN WPC 2014 objectives. For more information and an application, with guidelines, please visit the link on this page.